Broker Merrill Edge

The platform operates like a traditional investment brokerage company and offers a variety of investment options. The synergy with Bank of America also gives investors the ability to manage their banking operations through the parent company. This allows to manage most or all of clients’ finances through connected platforms.

The Merrilledge is supervised by two government agencies: the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). www.merrilledge.com is one of the companies that does not accept account applications from non-US residents.

The broker focuses on cooperation with investors and offers tools for long-term and short-term investments. The platform offers self-directed Investing for those who prefer to invest manually and also offers the advantages of a professionally managed portfolio. The company offers accounts for beginners and professionals, as well as allows you to choose a suitable option of deposits, among which are savings for retirement, providing a financial cushion for children, etc.

The broker provides access to several types of accounts:

• Retirement accounts: Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, SEP IRA & SIMPLE IRA, Small business 401(k) plan.
• College planning: Custodial (UGMA/UTMA) accounts, 529 college savings plans.

Investing & savings: Bank accounts, Online brokerage account.

Investment products offered at www.merrilledge.com

The company does not open access to trading on the platform, it is focused exclusively at investing. The platform offers each client stocks, mutual funds, ETFs, options, bonds, fixed income and margin trading. Merrilledge allows clients to reinvest dividends in fractional stocks, but does not allow them to buy fractional shares directly. That choice will be enough for the vast majority of people, and it will only be a small group of people (probably more sophisticated traders) who need something more, and for that group alone the broker loses to the rest.

www.merrilledge.com does not support forex or individual commodity trading, although some commodity ETFs are available. The broker has also taken a tough anti-cryptocurrency stance, which prevents traders from buying cryptocurrency ETFs. So if you want to trade forex, futures or cryptocurrency, you need to look for another broker.

What fees are charged on the platform

Trading fees are an important factor for many when choosing a trading or investment broker. Potential clients will be glad to know that with a Merrilledge self-directed trading account, there  are no stocks and ETFs transaction fees. Also, merrilledge.com does not charge inactivity fees.

When trading options through Merrill Edge, traders are charged a flat fee of $0.65 per contract. If your goal at merrilledge.com is to invest in bonds, it matters what type you choose. For some bonds there is no commission on the site, and for others you have to pay $1 per bond  (minimum – $10, maximum – $250). Transactions with mutual fund that are not part of the No Transaction Fee program cost $19.95.

Merrill Edge also offers robo-advisor and human-consultant services with different fee structures. Transactions with stocks and ETFs using a robo-advisor, as well as the purchase of options and bonds will cost from $29.95 per transaction.

The company charges a $49.95 fee for a full transfer from your account to another broker, although fortunately, it does not charge for partial transfers. You will also have to pay $49.95 to close your retirement account, this fee will not be added to the transfer commission.

Merrill Edge has zero commissions on all types of money deposits. But their number is limited. The company offers wire transfer (the same day), cash transfer (up to 3 days), check (3-5 days) and account or securities transfer (8+ days). There are also no fees for withdrawal by bank transfer as well, but this only applies to domestic bank withdrawal of funds. For international bank withdrawal, you will pay $24.95.

The company’s margin rate and leverage

As a subsidiary of Bank of America, Merrill Edge has significant amounts of margin available for traders to borrow. When borrowing up to $99,999, the broker adds 8,25-8,5% to its base interest rate. For bigger loans from $100,000 to $1 million, the added interest rate is 7.5-7.75%. The base interest rate is 1.188% (June 10, 2022).

Traders need to contact www.merrilledge.com directly to get access to more than $250,000 in the margin. As for traditional leverage, the company offers up to 1:100 leverage on stocks through its options contracts, with pre-leveraged ETFs also available for day trading.

Overview of the platform and its functions

The official website, merrilledge.com, provides an easy-to-use web-based trading platform. Its interface is intuitive, even for beginners.  There is also a more advanced marketplace – Merrill Edge MarketPro.

MarketPro offers a variety of professional tools:

• a lot of charts and a set of their settings;
• the ability to form 36 varieties of technical analysis;
• user-configurable control panel for each individual user;
• many options for managing trade notifications, creating watchlists and tracking your portfolio in real time.

Any client who has made 15 or more trades in a quarter can take advantage of MarketPro. Alternative requirement: have a combined minimum of $50,000 in accounts at Merrilledge stockbroker and Bank of America.

The platform is also notable for its simple navigation, which is especially appreciated by newcomers making their first steps in trading. However, according to customers’ feedbacks, it takes a little longer to complete trades using this platform than it does using platforms from competing brokers.

One of the main disadvantages of Merrill Edge MarketPro can be called the inability to perform “Ladder trading” or to build options chains in real time. It can hardly be called a drawback for beginners, but a large percentage of traders with experience, on the basis of this factor alone, are unlikely to choose merrilledge.com as their stock broker.

There is a mobile version of MarketPro for Android and iOS. It includes a customizable toolbar, interactive charts, planning tools and an administration center.

Merrill Edge Technical Support 

Email, phone numbers, and chat can be used to contact the support team. The Merrill Edge technical support schedule – 24/7. Clients of the investment broker who live in the United States  have the opportunity to receive offline support at the Bank of America financial center.

Training materials offered on the website

Broker Merrilledge is serious about educating its clients. The broker’s website offers a wide training program for beginners, traders with average experience and professionals. It is located in the Investor Education section. You can choose your level of knowledge, specific investment topics, and the format of the training material. The merrilledge.com offers a lot of useful information, which includes:

• educational articles;
• videos;
• specialized courses for traders of different levels of training;
• webinars by the company’s leading analysts.

Furthermore, the Education section of the platform’s website provides an opportunity to use a large number of different investment calculators – a very useful option, which customers praise in their reviews.